Design and Engineering of Nanostructured Multifunctional Electrocatalyst for Hydrogen Evolution, Oxygen Evolution and Oxygen Reduction Reactions

Abstract

The facile synthesis of highly durable, low-cost and robust electrocatalyst for hydrogen generation from water is vital to address the existing environmental issues as well as to provide environmental-friendly clean and green energy supply. The generation of hydrogen via water electrolysis driven from solar power opens up an attractive route to accoplish energy technologies in a fully renewable fashion. Noble metal-based catalysts such as Pt/C and RuO 2 are considered to be the most active electrocatalyst for the generation of hydrogen and oxygen via water splitting, but their limited availibility and high cost prevent them to be used in practical and global-scale applications. Therefore, it is highly desirable to achieve a highly active electrocatalyst which outperforms the activity of noble-metals, which can acts as an electrode material for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Present work highlights the design and engineering of electrocatalyst for water oxidation reaction as well as refects the integration of water electrolyzer with solar cell, in order to get hydrogen fuel in a renewable fashion. Along with that the introduction of metal air battery active electrocatalyst in also highlighted to store power in order to receive hygrogen fuel in a fully renewable and non-sporadic fashion. The current research will give us a glimpse towards a way for device engineering towards sustainable energy system in order to supercede the exsiting energy technology which is based on fossil fuels.